Tuatua Dining

Andrew picking  up the clams

Me with a full bucket of lunch!

Andrew and I have had the unique experience of doing the Tuatua dance down at 90 mile beach. It probably looks quite entertaining to those who have no idea what we are doing, since it involves wading into the water to about knee deep and then wiggling out toes and twisting our feet to get them to sink into the sand and find the clams that are buried about 4-8 centimeters below the sand. If we don't find any, we move a few feet down the beach and try again! 

It's a great way to gather some fresh seafood for lunch. Our hosts shared some of their recipes with us and we have made some of our own in the past week.

Tuatua in a bucket

 The first thing to do is to look up a local tide chart for the area and find when low tide is. Then wade into the water up to about knee deep or so at low tide and start wiggling your toes down into the sand. If you don't feel anything, then move on...it's quite easy to feel the clams with your toes. No, it doesn't hurt so you don't need shoes.

Next, put the tuatua (sometimes called pipi's by the locals) into a bucket with some seawater covering them. Leave them overnight or at least 6 hours. This will keep them alive and let them spit out all of their sand.

The hardest part is figuring out how to get into them! It took Andrew and I a bit of struggling and our host mom laughing at us a bit before she showed us the easy way to do it. One option is to simply steam or boil them until they just start to open. If you are going to just eat them, this works, but they can get really rubbery if you overcook them at all! The second option is to take a blunt knife (a butter knife will do) and slide it along the more open part of the shell towards the hinge part. This will slice the tendon that holds the shell closed and let you get them open easily!

Also, you can eat them raw. Seriously. I thought the locals were pulling our leg on this one but then when we were being showed how to open them I think more were eaten than went into the bowl to be made into lunch!

Tuatua pasta

Apart from trying them raw or just barely blanched, we made two recipes with our tuatua; pasta and fritters.

Tuatua pasta
3 cups dry pasta noodles (I used gluten free spirals)
1/2 cup grated cheese
5 cloves garlic - chopped
2 tbsp. butter
1 cup raw tuatua

1. Put pasta into boiling water and cook pasta
2. While the pasta is cooking, fry the garlic in the butter.
3. When the pasta is cooked, add the tuatua to the garlic and butter for approximately 45 to 90 seconds (depending on desired firmness).
4. Plate pasta, add tuatua, butter and garlic mix, then top with grated cheese.

Enjoy!

Fritter ingredients

 Tuatua fritters
These were a bit odd because they looked like normal pancakes, but definitely tasted a lot more savoury than sweet. More of an afternoon snack than breakfast!

1 cup flour (I used the gluten free baking mix)
1 egg
1 cup minced tuatua
2/3 cup milk (could substitute coconut or almond milk for lactose intolerant)
1/8 cup olive oil

Mix all ingredients together in a mixing bowl until a batter consistency is achieved. You can add additional milk if necessary.

In a medium frypan on medium heat, add olive oil. Once hot, add tuatua batter, approximately 1/8 cup per fritter. Once golden brown, flip. Once both sides are cooked, remove from heat.

Fritter batter

Plate of tuatua fritters

Frying the fritters